Walking to Induce Labor

by Carol Roberts, Childbirth Researcher on June 4, 2011

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Are you in the last week or two of pregnancy, or already at the end of your term and wondering where your baby is? Nature must be allowed to take its course (which is sometimes a couple weeks longer than the doctors predict), but sometimes you can help it along a bit by attempting to induce labor yourself, naturally and carefully, once you reach 39 weeks.

One popular method of inducing labor is walking. Walking to induce labor is a mild, simple method which you can use in your last couple weeks of expected pregnancy. Before you attempt this method, talk to your physician to make sure it’s okay. While gentle exercise is safe for most women, for those with health conditions like high blood pressure, or abnormalities in their pregnancy like a baby in breach position, it is not always best.

Once you have a go-ahead from your doctor, you can begin walking. Get a pair of really good walking shoes which are comfortable, and choose some fairly tame terrain to walk on. Somewhere level and wide is best; it isn’t unusual for you to have a poor sense of balance late in your pregnancy. Don’t walk up and down steep hills or any areas where you might be forced to overexert.

How does walking induce labor?

Walking pushes your baby downward, and the pressure pushes your cervix more open, which can eventually lead to contractions and delivery.

You can add other home remedies to induce labor to your walking routines. For instance, consider eating some pineapple, which releases Oxytocin into your body that can cause contractions to begin. Or try making some tea out of red raspberry leaf or cumin. Many women say that eating spicy food helped them to go into labor. All of these techniques may bring your delivery date even closer and are popular natural ways to induce labor.

If you want to really take extra measures to ensure your baby is born on time (or as soon as possible), then you may want to get acupuncture or acupressure. These age old techniques have been used to help pregnant women go into labor for generations by cleansing their energy fields and promoting balance and flow. When your energy is balanced and things are flowing, then you will have an easier time doing most things, and that includes delivering your baby. Not only can this induce labor sooner, but it can also lead to a smoother delivery process.

Walking is a really good way to safely and effectively induce labor, but it can work even better when combined with other methods like foods and herbs which induce labor, or acupressure to induce labor. You can perform acupressure on yourself or you can hire a professional practitioner. No matter what approach or combination of approaches you take, you can be assured that these natural techniques are safer for you and your baby than any kind of labor inducing drug. Just remember to consult a physician before using herbs or starting a walking routine to induce labor!